Published 5:30 am, Sunday, October 21, 2007

Former NFL player Raymond Clayborn, right, talking to Texans defensive back Von Hutchins at Reliant Stadium, makes multiple checks of players on game day.

Former NFL player Raymond Clayborn, right, talking to Texans defensive back Von Hutchins at Reliant Stadium, makes multiple checks of players on game day.

Photo: BRETT COOMER, CHRONICLE

Uniform police go on patrol, dish on NFL fashion

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Former Pro Bowl defensive back Raymond Clayborn still carries himself as a professional on NFL game days, and he will be dressed appropriately for the occasion when the Texans and Tennessee Titans take the field today at Reliant Stadium.

It will be his job today, as it is at every Texans home game, to ensure that everybody from Vince Young to Dunta Robinson dresses like a pro, too.

Clayborn is the NFL's Houston uniform cop, charged with ensuring that players adhere to the league's dress code. Catch his eye and offend his sense of style, as Robinson did this season, and be prepared to pay a $5,000 fine. Do it again, and the fine doubles.

"The league wants everybody to be uniform," Clayborn said. "But the players want things to be like they are in college. They'll do all sorts of things if you let them get away with it."

For a cop, Clayborn is a jolly sort, with a word of greeting and a handshake for everyone he sees on his pregame rounds. But don't even think about crossing him when it comes to dressing for success, as Robinson did during a Texans home game against the Colts.

Gazing at the players as they warmed up, Clayborn said: "Dunta's got so much wrong with him right now, it's a shame. He ought to be ashamed of himself."

For one thing, Robinson's uniform pants were pulled up too high on his legs. His regulation blue and white socks were rolled down, exposing skin between the socks and the pants, and he had black tape on his white shoes. From the league's standpoint, he was a fashion disaster.

Robinson was warned of his transgressions, and he failed to comply. And so after the Texans lost a game that day, he learned he would be losing a small chunk of his weekly paycheck.

"I guess if they're going to pay a guy a million dollars, they've got to find a way to get $5,000 or $10,000 back from him," Robinson said. "So my socks were too low? Who complains about petty stuff like that? Even my mama wouldn't complain about my socks being too high or too low."

Alas, there are, as Daffy Duck would note, legalities involved here. Equipment manufacturers such as Reebok, Under Armour and Wilson pay substantial license fees to the NFL, and the NFL, in turn, wants to ensure their products are displayed properly.

"If you take your kids to Disneyland, you expect to see Mickey Mouse," said Merton Hanks, the former 49ers defensive back who is the NFL's senior manager for football operations. "When you come to an NFL game, you expect to see professional players, dressed in a manner that the NFL prescribes."

Safety first

There are safety issues at work, too. Despite the old school allure of players such as Art Donovan or
Lou Michaels
lumbering downfield with shirttails trailing, players run the risk of injury if they don't wear their gear correctly,

"I've seen in practices where a guy can pull his hamstring when he gets yanked on a jersey that is flopping around," Hanks said. "We also have to deal with jerseys that don't cover the shoulder pads. You see that a lot in college. That's an exposed plastic edge on a big man running around. You wouldn't let your kids run around like that, would you?"

Pieces of flair

NFL players always have tried to express their own fashion sense. Former Oilers running back
Spencer Tillman
recalls teammates
Ernest Givens
and Lorenzo White taking particular care with their uniform hand towels, and defensive back
Cris Dishman
liked to remove his uniform leg pads and fold up the pants to expose his knees "for that long, sleek look," Tillman said, laughing.

Hanks liked to style, too. He wore a turtleneck sweater under his uniform, which would pass muster today, and a red bandanna, which wouldn't, although he could have replaced it with a league-licensed skullcap similar to the one worn by Ray Lewis of the Ravens and other players.

"Under today's rules," he said, "the bandanna would have had to go."

Clayborn arrives for each home game at about 10 a.m. and hits the field early to talk with players.

"You can't show any skin between your pants and socks, and give me some white (socks) now," he told one group of Texans. "High pants are going to be a priority, and so is keeping your chin strap buckled. And if you have any skin showing between the knee and the pants, I'm gonna get you."

A few players, such as Texans kick returner Jerome Mathis, delight in baiting Clayborn before the game by rolling down their socks during warmups.

"I'm out there making it hard on him. I always know he's watching me." Mathis said. "It's a little ridiculous, but it's league policy. We've got a new commissioner who wants to enforce the rules, and we have to stick by them."

Clayborn makes another inspection tour when the players come out in full uniform about 30 to 45 minutes before kickoff.

Before the teams leave again for their final locker room instructions, he gives each team a list of players who are out of compliance on this particular week: 10 for the Texans, eight for the Colts.

Clayborn remains on the field for the first quarter to check compliance, and he makes another brief check during the third quarter. In this case, each of the 18 players complied except Robinson and Texans cornerback Jamar Fletcher.

Interviews included

Even when the game is over, the uniform police are on patrol. The league retains jurisdiction for 90 minutes after the final gun, and players are not allowed to give interviews wearing clothes with visible logos of non-NFL licensed apparel.

Hanks said the number of players fined on any given week for uniform violations varies from as few as five or six to as many as 75 to 100.

"You don't want to be fined," said Texans wide receiver Kevin Walter. "Raymond will always tell you if you're OK, so I double-check with him.

"I've gotten fined in Cincinnati with my socks for showing too much skin. It's not fun."